Just Friends?
by KathyChew
Summary: Ruby's best friend back from Signal has been enrolled into Beacon! Except Ruby might have an itsy crush on him, which is a problem, would she decide to ignore those feelings? Or does he have the same feelings for her too? Rated T for language. Cover art is not mine.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1- Who is Team GRNE?

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**A/N-** Hello, hello! Ladies and gentlemen my first fan fiction, ever. Pretty new to this stuff... so um. I've got a lot of plans for this story. Yeah, anyway.. let's get on with it !

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_ Beacon Academy, a prestigious school for the greatest hunters and huntresses to graduate from. Though, it's students can be quite rowdy and a little bit immature, many would think that it was not a place- most definitely - to goof around. Someone like Weiss would think so._

_Buzz kill, really._

_If you did think so, that Beacon Academy was a place of strict and uptight students, then you were absolutely wrong. Gossip and rumors always floated here and there._

* * *

_Beacon Hallways_

It was a normal day for Team RWBY and Team JNPR, at least it seemed so. As the two teams returned to their dorms after their boring afternoon classes before lunch, they passed by a chattering group of female students. Being curious, because of their loud and excited chattering, they began to eavesdrop on the girls' conversation.

"Ooh! Did you see the team leader? He's sooo cute!" One of the girls squealed.

The two teams turned to give looks of awe. Of course, the girls continued their chattering, oblivious to the looks.

"Ah! The team leader, he's so cute it hurts!"

"Nuh uh! The boy in blue is top! He's so handsome!"

"No way! The other guy with orange hair is cuter!"

"No, you're all wrong! The one in purple is so hot!" exclaimed another.

At that moment a group of four boys dressed in green, blue, orange, and purple turned the corner of the hallway.  
"Ah! It's them!" a girl whispered as she pointed at the approaching boys. Ruby looked to the group of boys. The one clad in green and white caught her attention.

While the teams were staring at the boys in awe, trying to understand why they were the talk of almost everyone (mostly the girls) of the school during the past three days, the boy in green locked eyes with Ruby and they seemed to bear through her silver orbs. His eyes glinted for a split-second before he blinked.

He seemed extremely familiar and that bothered Ruby.

He spoke up,"Hi, Ruby!" he waved his arms at her as the three other boys of his group looked in her direction. She could've sworn she saw the three look at her, then the boy in green and smirked.

Her eyes widened when she realized who the boy in green was. How stupid for her to forget. He would've been offended if she didn't recognize him, her very own best friend from Signal Academy.

"Ben!" she ran to to him and gave him a bone crushing hug.

"How're you doing, Ruby? My, my! You've grown! Now I'm just four inches taller." he tried to breathe out."I thought you didn't recognize me when I called you." he chuckled. Ruby shifted uneasily as she felt daggers being stared at her from the previous group of chattering girls.

She pulled away and asked. "What brings you to Beacon?" By now everyone had left the halls to return to their dorms.

"Oh! U-umm, well it's quite a long story," Ruby studied his expression. "actually, I was looking for you!" he poked her forehead and smiled. Like any curious Ruby would ask. "What for?"

Ben's gaze darted from her silver orbs to the ground. "You said that you and I, including the gang back at Signal would graduate together..." he muttered as he trailed off from his sentence. He had a flash of disappointment on his face before his gaze snapped back up and looked fiercely into her eyes, his eyes burned a deep orange.

"You're not going to ditch me again are you? 'cause I had to work my way in here! And I was lucky to be moved up two years!" he frowned. He blinked and his eyes turned back to the original colour ( _I'm Canadian, yo.)_ of green. Without letting her reply, "Um, anyway. I'll see you around! I've got to meet up with my friends!" then he jogged away

"Okay! Bye!" Ruby called, but he already turned the corner. Ruby spun around on her heel and walked down the once loud, but now calm hallway, and retreated to her dorm.

_ 'Ooh. Rainbow coloured eyes.'_

* * *

_ Team RWBY's_ dorm

As Ruby approached her team's dorm room, she heard a muffled fit of giggles, and then a high-pitched squeal.  
'_Yang_' Ruby thought as she rolled her eyes.

She twisted the doorknob and was welcomed by the sight of her team mates all sitting in a circle on the ground.  
Their faces were all in surprise after snapping their heads to the door to see a curious Ruby.

"Ruby! You should knock before you enter!" scolded Weiss. Ruby walked over to the circle and sat down cross-legged with them. " Sorry," she muttered. "So... What's going on?"  
Yang was about speak up, but Blake slapped her hand over the blonde's mouth. "Nothing" was the raven-haired girl's reply.

"Aww! Come on guys!" she crossed her arms across her chest and pouted. "You can't keep secrets from your leader!"

The three girls looked at each other, then at Ruby, deciding whether to tell her of the gossiping or not. Weiss rolled her eyes, "Ruby, we're talking about boys," Yang glanced to her younger sister to see her reaction. Ruby's eyes widened slightly before she spoke again, "uh boys huh? G-go on, continue. I'll just listen!"

Yang smirked to herself. '_Ha! That girl is going to crack! Listen you say?'_ She thought, as she came up with a mischievous plan. Yang narrowed her eyes as she continued smiling menacingly and glanced at the clock hung up on their wall. '_12:14? That's about 15 minutes until lunch... oh I'll shake her up, I'll make her so uncomfortable!'_

She turned back around and looked at Weiss and Blake, she winked at them, as if to say, "I've got something up my sleeve!" Then she turned back to Ruby, the oh-so-clueless-girl.

"Oh, Ruby! We were just talking about that boy! What's his name? He's wearing green... and stuff." Ruby cocked her head to the side. "Ben? Team leader of GRNE? Oh! He's my best friend! Yang smirked again. '_You best friend? Even better!_'

_ "_Yeah, that's him! He's just so-omah-god-gorgeous!" Yang squealed.

Weiss and Blake looked at each other, they caught on Yang's plan, and they too, spoke up.  
Weiss cleared her throat. "Well, he's decently dressed. Handsome and charming he is," Ruby shifted on her spot as she continued to listen. "I agree, he is charming." Yang rolled her eyes. '_How dull, you've got to kick it up a notch!'_

"Oh, Ruby! If you know him so well, could you introduce me to him? Maybe I could get on some _action!'_ Yang said as she grinned pervertedly. Ruby flushed as she understood what her sister meant.  
'_What?! How could...ugh!'_ flustered, Ruby tried to clear things up. "Yang, he's two years younger than you! H-How could you even... ugh... th-think about that?!" stammered Ruby.  
It was true Ben was only a few months older than Ruby and it was sort of wrong for Yang to date someone Ruby's age. Besides, Ruby already had a crush on Ben. Psh, but that was l-like t-two years ago, right?

"How about you?" questioned Yang. "What?"  
'_ugh! Don't you get it? I'm trying to hint you!'_

"Why don't you go try it?" Yang sighed half-heartedly.

"W-what?! Like...Have...?" Ruby blushed scarlet. She was definitely not ready for _THAT_!  
Yang almost facepalmed. "No! I mean, _you_ go out with him! Ask him out! I think you two would make an excellent couple!" Yang stretched out her arm and motioned in front of her. "I can see it! The ship, Benby. What do you guys think?"

Blake and Weiss murmured their opinions. "NO, Ruben. That's definitely it." stated Blake. "No, it probably should be..." Ruby couldn't take it anymore. How embarrassing! She shouldn't have even stepped into the room in the first place. She would've been still talking to ...

Ruby darted out of the room, a flash of red and she was gone, a few petals floating to the ground in her place.

"We got her good! Let's see how she faces Ben now!" Yang snickered. '_I'm such a great matchmaker.' _ she thought sarcastically.

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**A/N-** WOOOO! First chapter ever, DONE! Reviews are appreciated. I know it's kinda short, I have a tight schedule, I don't usually have so much time to sit down and write fan fiction. I might update every one to two weeks. I'm usually busy so yeah... Thanks fo' readin' . Byeeee!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N-** Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! This chapter was meant to come out a week ago, sorry for the wait, I was quite busy and it was also due to procrastination. I have a shout out to my first reviewer, Sanguis . Anima! Thanks for the review! I also want to thank everyone who reviewed, liked, and favourited! Now let's get to the chapter!

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Chapter 2- Lunch with Team GRNE

_Beacon Cafeteria_

As lunchtime rolled around, students flooded into the cafeteria of Beacon. Fortunately, Team RWBY had already found tables, seen that there were few seats scattered here and there across the cafeteria.

Ruby was mindlessly poking at her food and was unusually quiet. '_Ugh... Mashed potatoes and salad again?'_

There was talking among their table, also shared with Team JNPR. Nora was telling them of her adventurous, as well ridiculous, dreams once again. Yang was listening intently as she was gobbling down on her own tray of food. Blake was eating whilst reading her book and Weiss poked at her salad.

"- and then four Beowolves jumped out from the bushes! Ren ran up behind one and beheaded it!" Nora exclaimed as her eyes shined, full of adventure. "There were only two..." Ren corrected.

Ruby usually listened to these tales, but today she had other things on her mind.

"Ruby?" she didn't notice that Ben and his team had walked right up to her table. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Yang, sitting across from her, covering her mouth, attempting to cover up her smirk. Blake peeked up from her book.

Ruby only looked up at him. "Do you mind if my team and I sit here? You have some seats here at your table." Ben asked her, pointing at four seats.

Ruby didn't say anything as Ben plopped down onto the seat next to her, his tray smacking on the table. His other teammates also followed suit, but sat a few seats across from Ben, sitting with the other members and introducing themselves to them.

Yang was still covering up her smirk as Weiss was glaring in Yang's direction, Blake was stifling the small chuckle on her lips.

"Oh... umm..." Ruby didn't know what to say. What was she supposed to do? She didn't mind, but as flustered as Ruby was, the bloom that tainted her cheeks told otherwise. She stared down at her tray, looked most certainly interesting now.

"Pssh. Mashed potatoes again?" Ben frowned at his spoonful of the mushy stuff. "It doesn't even taste like it." Yang tried to strike up a conversation between the two, as Ruby awkwardly stared at his spoon of mashed potatoes. "Mhm. Ruby hates it too. Say, Ben, why haven't we heard of team GRNE before? We don't know much about your team." she said, completely ignoring the boy beside her dressed in purple that was lightly nudging her elbow, trying to get her attention.

Ben looked reluctant to talk, "Well, no one really knows us because we didn't exactly put down a Nevermore or a Death Stalker during initiation, ... until recently on a mission to a small village, we encountered a pack of three Ursa Majors." Ben sheepishly explained.

"Wow... That's amazing. Your team down three in one go! Those Ursas can pack a punch. I guess you can say that you got out almost _bear_ly. Ba- dum, tss."

Blake almost spat out her food. Weiss covered a side of her face, trying to hide away.

"Um... thanks?" Ben looked uneasy. Ruby kicked Yang under the table. "Aw, come on! Can't a girl crack a joke?" Yang said as she rested her chin on her hand and went back to her previous interest of Nora's dream.

"Your sister is pretty funny," Ben chuckled as he ate his spoon of mushy goop of mashed potatoes.

Ruby only nodded and poked her lunch again.

Ruby had not said much, Ben knew that Ruby was a very talkative type of person, that added to her quirky personality.

He didn't know what was wrong, Ruby had not spoke a word since he had sat down. Only a few nods here and there. There was something really off.

"Um... You okay, Ruby? You haven't said anything." Ruby's only looked up. "Sorry, I'm just... thinking." Ruby looked back at her tray.

She hadn't been in contact with her friends at all, she almost felt guilty for not sending back letters to the gang back at Signal for almost a week, she was busy after all. What was she supposed to say? She hadn't spoken to any of them in person ever since she left.

"Thinking about what?" Yang asked innocently as she chimed in. Ruby scoffed, "Nothing that you're thinking about." Yang waved her hand at her and turned back to the table.

"Is something wrong? Are you not feeling well?" Ben said as he ate a spoon of peas. "You haven't touched your food - though I can understand that. This food is disgusting!" Ruby shook her head. "I'm just not hungry. I usually am, but my stomach feels kinda weird."

As the table continued their eating (or most of them), a girl with jade-green hair bounded next to their table.

She stopped next to Ben and gave him a squeezing hug. Ruby shifted away as Ben lightly leaned against her from the force of the hug.

"Hi, Jade. What're you doing here? You have a table with your friends, now shoo. Don't bother me." Ben tried to wave her off after she stood back up." Who's she? Your girlfriend?" Jade whispered in Ben's ear. She pointed at Ruby and she tilted her head in confusion.

"No! She's not my girlfriend! Leave me alone! Out!" whispered Ben furiously. "Go, go, go. Get out! Don't- guhhh! Get out!" Ben tried to push her off as she pushed him against Ruby. "Hi, Ruby! Are going out with my brother?" Ruby tried to open her mouth to speak, her cheeks tinted pink." I- uh,"

Jade stood up and puffed out her chest.

"If my idiot brother tries to hurt your feelings, I'll pound him to the ground with my fists!" she said as she punched her fist into her palm.

"I... Don't think that's necessary. We're not going ou-"

"Not yet, you aren't," Jade grinned.

"Alright, have a great rest of the day, Ben." and she skipped away.

Ben groaned.

He wanted to hide in a hole, disappearing from the sight of everyone. His sister always _had_ to embarrass him.

Secretly, Ruby found it amusing.

* * *

_Beacon School Grounds  
_

After lunch, Team RWBY and JNPR had a walk in the school grounds. Ben tagged along, his team had returned to their dorms for some rest.

They had a few hours before the last class of the day started at around 6:00 pm. The lecture goes on for two hours, it's nice to go out on walks for fresh air before you're cooped up in a lecture hall again. Uniforms were also suffocating.

"Ouch, Cardin landed a heavy blow on my arm this morning during spar," Jaune inspected a forming bruise on his arm.

"Jaune, I don't think it's a good idea to be sparring with Cardin I don't understand why the instructor would even pair you up with a hooligan. I'll speak with the instructor. I'm sure he'll understand." Pyrrha tried to reach out to his arm for inspection. Jaune waved her hand away.

"I'm fine, Pyrrha. It's just a small bruise." Pyrrha sighed and walked on. "You know, Jaune. If Cardin tries to bully you, come to us. We'll take care of him." Yang grinned. This time Jaune sighed.

Ruby and Ben had their own conversation. Ben had brought up the topic of weapons when he showed her his ax-shotgun hybrid of a weapon.  
The topic of weapons always made Ruby giddy with excitement.

"That. Is. An. Awesome. Weapon!" Ruby stared at it. "My weapon is not as cool as yours. I'm not as good as crafting as you are," Ruby said.  
"What?! You've got a scythe sniper-rifle thing! How's that not cool?" Ben waved his arms at Ruby's contracted scythe on her back.

"I'm not good at crafting weapons. How are you so good? You make it look so easy,"

Ruby looked at Ben, his face downcast."My father was a skilled weapon smith." he quietly said. Ruby turned her head away,she felt guilty. She shouldn't have even brought that subject up in the first place.

Ben's father was a local woodsman and a weapon smith at their village. His mother was a game hunter (not hunter hunter, like an animal hunter) that specialized with the bow.

Unfortunately at a young age of nine, Ben lost both his parents in a Beowolf attack on his village that had been destroyed. His aunt Dorothy had rescued both Ben and his sister, Jade. They were raised by his aunt until they were both old enough to be enrolled in Signal to become hunters and huntresses.

It was something that Ben did not like to talk about. He thought what happened in his past was meant to be forgotten.

Ruby changed the subject."What do you call you ax?" Ben blinked up at her. "Ascia."

She nodded. "I've never really seen you fight, we were never in the same classes. I only knew you because your aunt knew my uncle, Qrow." Ben didn't say anything. Now Ruby was the talkative one and Ben was silent.

"Uh... How did your team kill the Ursa Majors? It must've been hard."

"I killed one with the help of my friend Evan Orson, you know, the guy dressed in dark purple, scraggly brown hair, he was sitting next to your sister during lunch. We took it on from both sides, he distracted it and I beheaded it."

"Evan is your partner?" Ben nodded in response. "Oh, that's probably why everyone was talking about your team."

When Ruby looked behind she no longer saw team RWBY or JNPR She quickly snapped her neck back forward. Ben had not taken notice at all.

This was bad, very bad. Yang purposely lead the two teams away as Ben and her talked on. Their conversation had taken the awkward turn and Ruby was to focused on trying to fix it and didn't notice when the teams had left. Ruby concluded this herself, Yang was trying to set her up with Ben!

Ben looked to Ruby and laughed. Her eyebrows were knit and she looked so troubled, he thought she looked constipated.

"H-Huh? What are you laughing at?" Ruby was shocked and embarrassed at the same time. Did he know what she was thinking? One minute he was sulking, the next he was laughing for some odd reason.

Ben took a breath of air trying to calm himself down before speaking. "I just thought that you looked constipated. Heh heh."

Ruby bursted into laughing. "Wait! What?! I don't-" and Ben bursted laughing again.

"You're weird when you're too quiet," Ruby said after they had their laugh.

"Ah, sorry. Just... thinking." Ruby could tell that he wanted to drop the subject.

They walked on for a few more minutes. They stopped next to a bench but they didn't sit down. Ben turned to face her.

"You know, we have a lot more time before class starts. I want to show you this cool place I found last week." he dragged her by the sleeve and got her to follow him. The path they were following went a long way.

"Where are we going?" Ruby followed after him instead of being dragged along. It seemed like they were circling around the large structure of Beacon Academy and walking towards the back of the school.

"So, there's this huge meadow-field place in the back of Beacon and it's so peaceful there. It's just that we have to take this long way around the building to get there. In the middle of the meadow, there's this hill and there's a gigantic Oak tree planted on top," he waved his arms to exaggerate. "It's the biggest Oak you'll ever see!"

Ruby looked at his bullet-proof vest over his green sweater, and saw on his right chest that there was a green leaf, it was his insignia. She guessed that he loved nature based on how he looked so excited to show her the humongous tree that he spoke of and also on how he dressed. The boy was practically dressed from head to toe in green, except for his snowy camouflage pants of course.

"Here, we're almost there," he picked up his pace and jogged along the path he was leading her. When they slowed to a stop, all she saw was a small field and some Pine trees. "The meadow is just behind this curtain of trees, it's cool 'cus it's hidden from view. We could even come here at the end of the day and hang out more often. It has this nice scent of fresh air."

When they brushed past the Pine trees, Ruby saw the most magnificent view she had ever seen since she arrived at Beacon. It was a large meadow with a hill and, true to his word, the largest Oak tree she's ever seen.

The meadow was lightly dimmed and the skies were orange as the sun was setting slowly.

"Wow... This is so awesome," Ruby looked all around her, taking in the view. The setting was so calm and peaceful. Maybe it _was_ a great place to rest and hang out.

Then she noticed it.

All scattered across the meadow, were rose bushes.

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**A/N-** OHHH! Finally some plot progression! This chapter took longer to write than expected and I changed a lot of detail here and there, for example the scene when Ben was intended to be all joyful, but then it turned all depressing.

I'm sorry that this took longer to update, but I made it up for another extra 900 to 1000 words. PFFFT. Anyway, thanks for reading. Make sure to like, review, or favourite. I'll see you next chapter with more plot progression!

Oh and I forgot to add in chapter one that **RWBY** does not belong to me obviously, belongs to **Monty Oum**.

Tell me in the reviews if you guys want me to flesh out Ben's backstory more, or include his team mates more in the story so you readers can have a visual of what they're like. Thanks for reading and for all the views, byyee!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N-** Whoa HO HO! Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. Sorry I get laaaaazy during the winter in Canada. Some of you probably thought I abandoned this fanfiction, sorry! This chapter we will be focusing on the members of team GRNE and the character progression, as well as some seasonal themes (like as in snow fallin')

So, apparently Monty has posted on his Facebook wall that there is RWBY colour naming rule that he follows. Some of you may have heard about it if you've been active (or stalking) his Facebook wall and have seen it and others may have not. Anyway, I am probably not going to follow this rule. I personally think that it's great that there's a guide, but I already have too much characters fleshed out to be edited.

If you want to find it, take a look at it, check out his Facebook page.

Let's get on with tha chapttaaa.

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_Professor Port's Grimm Studies_ _Class_

Ben sat slumped in his seat, practically bored to death listening to Professor Port's tale of how he captured the Boarbatusk from the day they had been tested on their Hunter skills.

"- you must watch for the tusks!" Professor Port shouted out loud, waving his pointer in the air. Ben stared down at his sheet of lined paper.

Scrawled across it were his team members' names: BEN GREENE, CARSON RAYMONDS, NICHOLAS MARTIN, and EVAN ORSON.

He was doodling a drawing of Professor Port when he heard someone's stomach growl. He looked over to his right and saw Nicholas rubbing his stomach, trying to settle it down.

"Heh, sorry. I'm kinda hungry," Nicholas lifted his right hand and pushed his uniform sleeve back to reveal his black wrist watch. "10 more minutes." he sighed and rested his chin on his folded arms. Ben turned his attention to his left, Carson Raymonds. Carson was vigorously taking notes on Professor Port's "lesson" that flew off topic.

Originally the lesson was a discussion about the upcoming missions that were assigned to different teams. They were to discuss about strategies needed during the missions to fight the Grimm. Ben and his team were paired with another team, that they had not met yet, and were assigned a scouting and patrolling mission. They were to recon a village deep in the forest. It was something about a King Taijitu lurking in the murky forest.

Ben didn't remember, he was exhausted and Professor Port's lecture didn't help either.

"Don't sleep, Ben," he heard a whisper call him from above. He felt an eraser drop and bounce off his head, rolling onto his table. "I said don't sleep, you loser," this time the whisper was more urgent.

"Shh, Evan, you might disrupt the class," Ben mocked back at his partner. "You can sleep later, class is almost over and we'll leave." Evan said.  
Ben slumped further into his seat and rested his head against the hard wood of the lecture hall's wall.

"If you fall asleep you'll get extra readings," Evan warned.  
"That's if I get caught." Ben deadpanned and gave a small laugh.

Evan leaned down from his seat above Ben and tapped his jet black hair with his pen. "Get. Up. Wake up, moron,"  
"No." Ben simply answered.

"Shhhut uuuppp," a muffled groan from a girl called from above. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

Evan immediately slouched back into his seat, his face heated of embarrassment. Ben smirked from his seat below Evan.

"Alright, sorry. I've gotten off track once again, ho ho," Professor Port took a sip of his mug of coffee and continued. "We will now discuss the details of the upcoming Scouting Missions.".

Immediately whispers and excitement could be heard as Professor Port had their attention, even Ben's ears perked to listen.

"I am sure some of you are aware that in the upcoming missions, teams will paired up to complete the tasks," Professor Port reached up and pulled down the projector screen to reveal several posters taped onto it. Each poster listed teams paired up with others.

"Team CNDL (candle) will be paired up with team FRST (frost). Team COAL with team DUSK. Team SQRL (squirrel, lol) and team GRNE -"

Ben sat straight up. _'Team SQRL?! What kind of name is that?'_

" - Team CRDL will be paired up with team SEMI. Team WILT and team JNPR. Team RWBY with team LGHT (light). I will give some time for the pairs to get together to discuss." and Professor Port headed back to his desk and sat back to rest. Students stood up from their desks and shuffled to where their teams were gathered.

Team GRNE grouped in the row where Ben was seated. "What? Team SQRL? What a lame n-"  
Evan cut short as a taller - slight muscular - boy with ashen grey hair approached their team, followed by 3 others. One a shorter girl with chin-length black hair, another girl with raven black long hair with purple streaks, and a boy with golden brown hair swept to the right side of his face.

The ashen-haired boy walked forward and reached out to shake someone's hand. "Team SQRL. Swell to be of your acquaintance. I am Eddard Landcaster, this is Kri Sade," he gestured to the shorter girl with chin-length hair. "leader of team SQRL. And members Quinn Quantum and Ryan Dorian." Eddard stood aside as the three gave small waves and smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you, my name is Carson Raymonds." Carson reached out and shook Eddard's hand, then the others. Evan stepped forward to shake. "I'm Evan!" he shook their hands, but stopped when Quinn pulled her hand back. She squinted and studied him. "You're that annoying kid that always whispers so damn loudly while people try to sleep," Quinn notes irritated and Evan retracted his own hand.

"I'm Ben and this is Nicholas," Ben elbows Nicholas and he smiled awkwardly.

"So, we were assigned a scout area near the village in the forest. I recall, that it was a report on the sighting of a King Taijitu," Carson turned to Eddard. "Yes, and I believe we are to exterminate it," Eddard commented. Ben nodded in agreement. "Is there a day when we will be scouting?" Ben asked. "It's within this coming two week span," Kri spoke. "if we start soon we won't run into harsh blizzards and we'll finish beforehand."

"Then, it's agreed. We'll start at least within this week span," Ben yawned and stretched. "I think we can leave." he pointed at the door. Students were slowly shuffling out the door as Professor Port snored in his chair.

Ben caught sight of Ruby's familiar vivid red cloak as she was trailing behind Yang and was speaking to Weiss. He jogged downed the steps and slowed as he was passing Professor Port's slumped body. "Ruby!" he called out. Ruby turned to whoever called out her name. She saw Ben wildly wave an arm in the air to get her attention.

Ruby turned to her teammates "Guys, I'm going to be back later. Just go on back to your dorms, okay?". Yang looked over Ruby's shoulder and saw Ben. "Alright, just be back soon. It's almost lights out." Yang smiled and walked off down the corridor with Weiss and Blake. "Don't be too long with your boyfriend!" Yang shouted halfway down the hall.

Ruby ignored her sister's teasing and turned around to Ben. "What's up?" she asked as she fell in step with him. Ben turned to answer her. "I was going to ask which team you're with," Ben said as he continued walking.

Ruby put her finger on her chin. "Team LGHT. There's Liam, some girl named Gwen, um... Hayden, and... I forgot the last one," Ruby turned to him to ask a question. "What team are you with?"

Ben breathed a deep sigh. "We're paired up with team SQRL. Weird name... The leader is this girl, Kri, Quinn, Ryan, and this tall dude, Eddard."  
She mouthed the names. "Eddard is a funny name. Does he accept Edd?"  
Ben only shrugged.

The couple stopped walking at an immense window by the balcony door. Ben's mouth was open in awe and he dragged her closer to the window and looked outside. It was dark out but the luminous lights outside emitted a soft gold. He pointed out the window and smiled.

"Look," he whispered, the heat from his breath forming fog on the window. Ruby's eyes widened wondrously as she spotted the small snowflakes swirl around the window.  
"It's snowing!" Ruby whispered excitedly.

"It's the first snowfall of the year too," Ben continued as he stared at the small snowflakes flutter to the ground. "If it snows too much then that's a problem. We have the missions soon."

"Yeah," still staring at the falling snow. "What mission did you get?" Ruby asked. "My team and team LGHT got an extermination mission. Ursas."  
"We're scouting for a King Taijitu," Ben reached and ruffled Ruby's hair.  
"You be careful okay? If you run into any Ursa Majors find your sister. You can't be too safe." he said with a hint of seriousness and he turned away to look back at the window. Smiling bitterly.

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest, looking bold. "I can handle them myself perfectly fine," and Ben laughed. "You be careful too, Ben." and he nodded.

The two straightened and rounded to walk back to their dorms.

Feeling exhausted, Ben let out a yawn. "Welp, I'm tired. You?" Ruby nodded. "Let's get you back to your room," Ben suggested.

Ruby let out a small playful grumble. "I can walk back myself,"  
Ben laughed again. "But what kind of gentleman would I be if I left my lady friend without escorting her back safely to where she were staying?".  
Starting to feel her cheeks heating up, she bit her lip and looked away. "Fine,"

Ben smiled and started walking in step with Ruby.  
In a few minutes, the two reached the split intersection that branched towards two other hallways.

Ben turned to Ruby to ask if she wanted him to walk her to her dorm room. "No, no, it's fine. My room is just there. Plus, it'd be a bit awkward" she muttered as she tilted on her heels.

She reached up on her tippy-toes and ruffled Ben's spiky hair. He let out a sharp gasp of shock. "My hair! You'll mess up my gelled hair!" Ruby laughed and waved goodnight, Ben waving back.

She walked from him to her room and turned around to wave a last goodbye.

Still standing at the intersection, after waving, he whispered under his breath.

"You have to be careful. I promised."

* * *

**A/N-** UUAAAA. Sorry guys for not updating for quite some time now. I'll be updating more frequently because in Canada we will be on our winter/ Christmas break. I'll devote most of my break so I can update even more chapters! Anyway, don't think I'll abandon this fanfic, I am definitely not. Please don't mind my mistakes 'cus I edited it pretty late.

Alright, sorry for my short rant. I'll see you lovely readers soon!


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